Brad Swanson reports on the happenings in and around Trans World Radio's station on the island of Bonaire. TWR Bonaire broadcasts Gospel music and Bible teaching programs which can be heard in Latin America and the Caribbean: in the Spanish, English, Portuguese, Baniwa, and Macuxi languages.You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Bonaire now has a donut shop in the center of town. Perhaps that is what lured Rob Evans, the Donut Man to visit Bonaire. ha-ha

Rob took time from his diving to visit us the International Bible Church for the Tuesday evening Bible study. He also stopped by on Sunday morning and did a brief presentation for the kids (and young at heart) who were present.
You can see Rob in action on YouTube.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Did you get to see the Moon, Venus and Jupiter all together? It was pouring down rain here on Saturday evening, but we got a peek or two between the clouds. It was very cloudy on Sunday night too, but we did get a glimpse or two.

Remember the pictures I posted last week, of the men who were fishing along the cliffs at the water's edge? Well, when I rode by this week, there were no men, but at least twelve pelicans were hanging out there. So it is pretty save to say that the fish were still around. I didn't bring along a camera on this last ride, but I would have loved to have gotten a shot of all those pelicans lined stationed along the cliff edge, drying their feathers in the early morning sun.

I was just on Google Earth the other day to check something out and whoa, they've just added some new imagery of Bonaire for 2012. It was actually shot in January of 2011 and is crystal clear, especially in Washington Park, where clouds used to cover up some of the main areas I wanted to see.

The newest imagery begins about half way between the TWR offices and the center of town, on the West coast and cuts straight across the island to the East coast just north of the Punto Blanku chicken farm.

I can see our trusty Suzuki Samurai (20.5 years old now) and you can find the International Bible Church at 12.169629 north latitude and 68.284764 west longitude.
The picture was taken before Siegfried and his team cleaned out the bushes and put in the new dirt for the parking area, but the buildings look about right.

The 2010-2011 rainy season was a huge one and I think that you can tell that one part of the road around Goto Lake was still under water on Jan. 17, when the image was made.

Friday, February 24, 2012

It is a rainy Friday here on Bonaire. I really hope it clears up tomorrow because Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will be putting on a great show Saturday and Sunday evenings.
The Moon will be close to Venus on Saturday night and close to Jupiter Sunday night. This grouping of the two planets and the Moon should look really nice. You can also use the Moon's close proximity to the planets to identify Venus on Saturday night and then to identify Jupiter on Sunday night.

You can also use the Moon to look for Venus before sunset on Saturday afternoon. If you are in western Europe, Venus will be more or less directly to the left of the moon. In North America, Venus will be to the lower left of the Moon. This article at Sky and Telescope explains it and has a nice diagram.

I've seen Venus during the daytime here on Bonaire. But always in the morning when I can first locate Venus in the dark and then track its progress across the sky relative to some fixed object. One time I could find Venus until about noon.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

I shot this one back in 2008. The flamingo in the foreground came rushing up on the one in the background while he was foraging for food under the water. Sort of an aquatic ambush. Much squawking and flapping ensued. I was bummed that I didn't get a video of the encounter because I found it truly fascinating behavior.

But when I was reviewing my pictures last week, I realized that these frenzied flamingos were flashing their fine feathers, and I hadn't totally failed after all.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

This past Monday was a holiday here on Bonaire. Some of us, who weren't nursing Carnival related hangovers, took the opportunity to get out and enyoy the great outdoors. I had just done my weekly Washington Park bike ride the previous Saturday, so this Monday holiday was a great opportunity to get in some extra miles.

I have occasionally been known to haul full size cameras and lenses around on my rides, and some of the images have been worth it. But this time I went with a small camera in a zip lock bag that I could drop into one of my bike jersey pockets. Playa Funchi, above, was looking very peaceful indeed.

These guys opted to get in some quality fishing time. Fishing from the edge of the island with a hand line can be quite dangerous in some parts of Bonaire. But the seas were calm and the fish were biting at this spot.

Bise Morto is just a bit south of Playa Funchi. This is a spot that I've never dived or snorkled. We'll have to rectify that soon.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Wai-Man Chan, from the China Nobo restaurant celebrated a birthday this weekend. So as is the tradition here on Bonaire, he brought along a cake to share with all his friends at the International Bible Church.

Also pictured is his daughter, Grace, who was visiting Bonaire for the occasion.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Dave Pedersen was going through our technical stock and found a bunch of what we think are brushes. The both have the same type of ferrule on the end.
Can anyone tell us what they were used for back in the day?

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Walt and his handy helpers finished blocking up the walls for the new classrooms at the International Bible Church. Below you can see them setting up the forms for the ring beam and the corner posts. What you can't see is the steel re-bar inside the forms which helps tie all the walls together into a solid structure.

The poured the beams on Thursday as I recall. After our monthly Saturday morning mens meeting today, we helped collect all the small pieces of wood and loose nails lying around, so that no one will injure themself on Sunday.

In the above photo, some of the plywood forms have been removed and you can see the concrete beams connecting the various block sections. Most structures here on Bonaire are constructed in this manner.